The light turns green but your car doesn’t move. Through the windshield, you watch a piece of sky, still foggy with yesterday’s clouds, tear loose and crater right between a minivan and a truck three cards ahead. Morning commuters lean on their horns as they wind their way around the obstacle. You’ll be late to work again.

By the following Wednesday, the weather report has been updated to include “smatterings of atmospheric decomposition.” You pull a dusty bike out of the closet since the pickup trucks still haven’t cleared the debris blocking the exit to the parking garage. Looking at the forecast, you grab an umbrella too.

At lunch, coworkers make conversation about current events, treading carefully around topics that are too political for the office.

“Have you guys seen that the sky’s been falling recently?”

“Yeah, man. Wild times. Anyone catch last night’s game?”

“Can’t anymore. Cable’s been wrecked ever since the ionosphere started peeling”

As the winter months come around, you start feeling the characteristic seasonal depression rear its ugly head. You finally decide to splurge on one of those fancy UV lamps—the metal skydome they installed last month has been making it hard to get enough sunlight. Your therapist said it’s important to practice self-care.

Just weeks later, you’re pissed to find an evacuation notice plastered on the front door. You weren’t supposed to be due for another 6 months, at least! As you pack your things into the 3 allotted cardboard boxes, you realize you forgot to renew your damned celestial collapse policy last week. The email got buried between some LinkedIn requests and DoorDash promos.

In line to check in to the designated bunker, people can’t help but make small talk.

“Do you guys think something’s wrong?”